


Truth sometimes hurts

by KhissaCat



Series: Baring your heart [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Confessions of love, F/M, Ladybug finally believes Chat, indirect love confession, making akumas is hard!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 05:26:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9369935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KhissaCat/pseuds/KhissaCat
Summary: A follow on to 'An overdue confession' where Chat Noir's feeling finally get recognized for what they are...  even if it takes him and Ladybug almost getting their asses kicked!





	

**Author's Note:**

> Note at the end!

The pain was breath taking, the only sound that reached her was the screaming, only later did she realize it was her own… intense, grating pain that threatened to turn her bones to powder, writhing as she tried to break free from the torture that blazed across every nerve of her being.

The relief when it ended was so overwhelming that it made her sick. Only the nearby report of metal on metal shocked her back to her senses, up! she had to get UP!

Chat swung again forcing the akuma to keep its attention on him and not Ladybug, already the winding coils of the vicious cat-o-nine-tails it wielded were snaking back in her direction. The creature met his baton swing with the polished metal handle of the whip, yanking back the strands that had been intent on causing more pain, buying Ladybug precious seconds to scramble to her feet.

Chat leapt away, ducking and dodging as the akuma lashed the eerily animated whip at him, the barbed ends hissing through the air and snatching at his suit but finding no purchase. The akuma drew back her bloodless lips in a snarl before spinning back to her previous quarry, shrieking when she found Ladybug gone.

Ladybug shuddered and slid down to her haunches against a chimney breast, she was still shaking from the encounter with Tell-Tale, as the akuma called herself, the bane of liars!

She startled as a warm hand gently cupped her cheek, her eyes flying open to find Chat Noir hovering over her, concern etched onto his features. Ladybug covered his hand with her own and took a steadying breath “I’m ok Chat, just a little shaken,” She looked up to him again and hesitated, he was not looking at her, rather his eyes were trained in the direction of the akuma, and they were burning with naked hatred as his thumb gently traced the junction of her mask and skin.

“Come on,” she tugged on Chats arm, and he gave her a hand up, “we need to stop Tell-Tale before innocent citizens get involved,” Ladybug laid a hand on his shoulder, barely suppressing a new shudder “and whatever you do, do NOT let that whip touch you!” Chat nodded gravely, and they were off.

Whoever had wronged Tell-Tale had done a doozy of a job. The akuma was a young woman, but her akumatised visage was something out of a nightmare, a hovering apparition, almost skeletal and grey skinned, the girl was covered with a slate coloured toga, frayed and tattered it splayed around her, whipped by some unseen wind, her eyes were covered with a stained and tattered rag, but this did not seem to hinder her ability to find her victims, her lips were thin and drawn, often she would curl them away to reveal rows of vicious pointed teeth covered in a bluish icor, long hair that had probably once been blond, whipped in matted strands along with the tatters of her robe. At her hip hung a coiled, single stranded whip, the lath of which was shimmering gold, she had yet to reach for that one, intent for now on using the tool of her vengeance. In her hand was a multi stranded whip, each lath writhed and coiled like a living thing, the ends tipped with glistening barbs, striking and lashing out with one purpose, to cause mind shattering pain.

Her motivation was simple, she tolerated no liars, any who had uttered a false word, any who were guilty of the smallest deceit, would be made to pay. It took only a small prodding from Hawkmoth to focus her attentions of Paris’s defenders, for who were more worthy of her punishment than those who lied to all of Paris, those who hid their faces behind masks, surely this was the greatest of deceits!

But for some reason half way through their initial fight she had singled out Ladybug, at times ignoring Chat Noir completely. It was this bloody minded focus that allowed her to get hold of Ladybug the first time, the writhing whip lashing again and again, driving the heroine backwards until it latched onto her ankle as she tried to flee, and felling her with swift and paralysing agony.

 

The fight was not going well, Tell-Tales disregard of Chat making their usual interplay of distractions and take downs useless. They were being pushed back, each having felt the bite of that terrible whip, and less inclined to feel it again, the heroes were allowing themselves to be backed up and cornered. And with no clear idea of how to get past her weapon, how to get hold of the cursed silver ring on a chain around her neck, their situation was getting dire.

Ladybug hissed in pain, cradling her bloodied arm, the barbs having torn through her suit, leaving deep and burning gashes across her forearm. Chats eyes went round in horror as a new shade of red stained her suit, his ears pinned back, a feral feline snarl tearing from his lips as he launched into the akuma, beating her back with a flurry of rapid parries of his baton. As fast as he was, her living weapon gave him no quarter, he yowled as one of the strands cut a line across his cheek, the rest tangling his baton and wresting it from his grip. He landed hard, scrambling away to avoid the strands that cut gouges into the pavement where he had fallen.  
Ladybug gasped when she saw the gaping cut on his cheek, but he paid it no mind, stepping in front of her he bared his claws and willed them to their fullest length and sharpness.  
“M’Lady, you need to get back to the rooftops,” he turned just enough to look at her over his shoulder, the look in his eyes made her blood run cold “I’ll hold her back as long as I can, you need to get somewhere where there’s room to move,” he looked back to the slowly advancing akuma “room to fight!”  
“Chat no! she’ll tear you apart!”  
“You have to M’Lady! you need room and time to use your lucky charm!” his eyes found hers again, something in them brought her pause, something deep and unwavering… “you have to get out of here…”

The shriek of the akuma startled them both, an inhuman swipe of her arm wiping Chat from Ladybugs line of sight, replacing him with the akumas own gaunt and grinning form! Ladybug lashed out with her yoyo, connecting the akuma hard in the chest, trying to push her back, but that terrible whip had already bitten deep, binding her arms firmly to her sides and dragging her to her knees, agony causing her to scream.  
“NO!” Chat had been thrown hard into a wall, a new gash colouring his hair, but he was already up and flung himself unheading at the akuma. He never even saw the golden whip until it caught around his throat.

Chat was dragged down, a searing line of fire around his neck, the sensation of slimy probing fingers worming their way behind his defences, the magic of the whip probing his mind, he gasped at the akumas mental intrusion but he had only one concern, claws tore at the whip trying to cut it away as he struggled to throw off the confusion, he had to get to Ladybug! “LET HER GO!”

Ragged nails dug into his jaw, lifting his head, he knelt before the akuma, the golden chord that was tied tightly around his throat spooled from the polished golden handle, throwing loop after loop around his shoulders, his arms, binding him tighter with each coil until he could barely move.

The monster bent over him, pale lips curling into a snarl of disgust, its voice was ready and hollow, “You annoy me! I will deal with you presently.”  
A fresh gasp of pain from Ladybug made Chat thrash against his bonds, “NO! I wont let you hurt her!”

The akuma yanked savagely at the golden whip, throwing Chat to the ground “You so willingly suffer for this wretch!? so eager for pain?! Tell me?!” A sickening grin split its face as the akuma held up the handle of the golden whip, engraved on its length was the word ‘Vérité’, truth, “its not as though you can lie to me!”

Chat spat viciously back, The akumas words barely headed “I would rather DIE than let the likes of you hurt her! Do what you want with me but let her GO!”

A gnarled hand sieved the chords at Chat throat and dragged him up, pressing her face close to his Tell-Tale hissed, “I punish only those who lie to me! who deceive those who trust them! you hide your faces from the world! what other lies are you guilty of!”

Chat glared, his green eyes boring into the blindfold, “Then why target her! I’m also wearing a mask!”

The creature chuckled mirthlessly, letting Chat slip from her grasp to crumple to the ground, “Your crimes are lesser, you are more truthfully yourself with that mask on…” the akuma turned her attention back to ladybug, a snarl raising her lips and baring those horrible teeth “but SHE! she lies! she must be stripped of it! she will confess! she will PAY!” her hand turned the handle of the cat-o-nine-tails, light glinting off of the word carved into it ‘Douleur’, pain.

Chats eyes went round as he watched the laths that had hung limp at her side begin to writhe again, reaching out, reaching to where he was sure Ladybug was still lying “NO!” He kicked out savagely, twisting against his bonds, tearing one hand free he seized hold of the barbed strands, causing them to whip and wind around his wrist and arm, crying out as the blinding pain coursed through his body, but refusing to let go!

The akuma bent low over him again, yanking at the golden chord that still threatened to steal his breath, a grotesque sweetness permeated her voice, speaking as to a child slow to understand, “Why do you waste yourself on her, this is not her true self…”

“BECAUSE I LOVE HER!” the golden chord throbbed with light, the weight of the Chats words, spoken true, searing into the akuma and causing her to stumble. Chat did not notice, blinded by his anger, his fear for Ladybug, and the numbing pain in his arm he railed on “I don’t care that she lets me only know this side of her! It’s enough! she cares for Paris and its people! she protects it from the monsters Hawkmoth creates, monsters LIKE YOU!” the weapon, designed to rip the truth from unwilling mouths pulsed with the recoil of truth so readily given, each statement rocking the akuma, driving her back. The loops of Vérité were loosening, allowing Chat to pull them away, “We hide our faces because what will a demon like Hawkmoth do if he knew our friends? our families? what would he do? what would he make YOU do to innocent people to get to US? the only people in Paris who can stop HIM!?” Douleur writhed piteously, recoiling to its wielders side as Chat advanced with unsheathed claws, the only coil of Vérité still bound to him being the loop at his throat, his face had turned ugly, his eyes burning, as he spat his confessions at the akuma, who was raising a hand across her face protectively, “I tell you now! that as long as there is breath in me I will fight! I don’t care what you do to me, I will not let you hurt her! I LOVE her with everything that I am! I’m nothing without her!”

He barely registered a flash of red, before a blinding light knocked him senseless…  
Ladybug having seized the ring and crushed it, the recoil of her purifying light resonating through Vérité, the weapon still linked to his mind, had knocked him out cold.

 

Ladybug held him tightly, his head cradled to her chest, a hand woven into his hair, hair that was rapidly dampening with her tears. Her heart was bursting, breaking, she wasn’t sure which, she’d never known you could feel so much all at once…

Gently she tilted his head to see his face, but his eyes stayed stubbornly closed behind his mask, and a stab of fear mingled with all the other emotions currently jockeying for position in her overtaxed brain. “Chat?”, it was barely a whisper, “wake up Chat, please, please wake up…”, anger flared, anger at herself, closely followed by regret. How many times had she laughed off his flirting as a joke, denied the sincerity of his advances? why? why had she ever thought that he had been anything other than sincere? she screwed up her face and fresh tears painted her cheeks as self-loathing slowly solidified and made itself at home.  
He loved her, despite her slights and faults, after years of rejecting him at every turn, he still loved her, finally, she allowed herself to fully cry, pressing her cheek to his hair with sobs shaking her frame as she forced herself to face the truth she had denied for so long, that it had taken an akuma to force her to acknowledge. He loved her. And she was afraid…

“L-Ladybug?”, Her breath hitched, pulling away she could only laugh with relief when her blue eyes met with slitted green ones. “Oh Dieu, Chat,” Ladybug cradled his face in her hands, unable to hold back the tears that cut fresh tracks across her cheeks, Chats hand flew to her face, thumbing away the tears “M’Lady! are you ok? what wrong? is the akuma purified?”. All she could do was nod to his questions, her voice wavering “Y-you’re o-ok…”. He hesitated, finally gathering the source of her distress, his strong arms pulled her to him and held her, she buried her face in the crook of his neck, hands fisting into his suit as he rocked her gently and let her cry herself out, “you’re ok.”.

Eventually her tears stilled, leaving her red faced and exhausted, but still no closer to resolving the swirling thoughts and emotions that muddled her mind. She’d pulled away from him, but Chat still sat close, her hands in his, carefully he turned her arm, a clawed finger ghosting over the place the whip had cut her, now healed and whole. She was startled by a sharp beep from her earrings. Ladybugs eyes flashed to Chat’s, her heart aching as she watched his jaw tighten and resignation settle across his face, his eyes falling away as his ring gave a matching chime, “I-I guess that’s our cue.” His forced smile cut her like it never had before, a bitter taste rising in her throat as she tried to recall the last time he had asked her, begged her to stay just a little longer, instead she watched him retreat, expecting the denial she dealt him so often that it was second nature. Accepting her rejection before she even offered it, satisfied with the little she was willing to give, and asking no more. God how she hated herself right now. A second, more urgent chime cut through the silence between them, and Ladybug couldn’t take it, not another second of it!

“Can you come out tonight?” There was something like desperation in her voice and she didn’t care, Chat nodded dumbly, “I’ll be at Notre Dame around eleven, find me!”. And she was gone. Leaving a somewhat dazed Chat Noir in her wake.

 

The muted thud of boots on stone announced that Chat Noir had arrived. Ladybug sat on the edge of a parapet, legs dangling into the void. Chat slipped down beside her, green eyes glowing in the moonlight, and a small smile playing at his lips. Ladybugs heart clenched, her eyes falling away to watch the play of light on the winding Seine.  
“Is everything alright M’Lady?” Ladybug shook her head, she couldn’t bring herself to say anything, not yet.

Chat slid a little closer, until their shoulders touched, “What can I do?” her eyes fell shut, “Its not your fault chaton,” she lent her head on his shoulder, “I’ve been an idiot.” She chuckled softly when felt him stiffen, he always argued when she naysaid herself.

Ladybug took a moment more to try and arrange her thoughts, no less muddle from earlier, no less conflicted, before she gave up and decided to simply try, she had to try, but how does one make something like this right, she still had to try, “Chat, what you said to Tell-Tale…”

Chat gave a soft huff, she sensed him bridle for her rejection, for her to spurn his advances as always, before he answered softly, stoically, a small smile still clinging to his mouth even as the spark fled his eyes, “Yes M’Lady?”

Her heart broke a little, of all people, she should know what it was to be in love, and not have it returned, of all people, she should have been more sympathetic, her own broken heart stood testament to her shortcomings and she was ashamed, her recent encounter with Adrien had been more than healing, shed finally been able to tell him how she felt, and even if he did not requite her love, at least now he understood, and just that had been more than a relief, it had been freeing! The tears from earlier that day pressed hard behind her eyes, the flush that coloured her cheeks was shame, when she found her voice it was low and husky, “I’m sorry Chat, Im so, so sorry…”

His head turned so fast she was sure she heard his neck crack, pure confusion clouded his face as his eyes searched hers, she couldn’t hold his gaze for long, turning away as a tear marked a line across her mask, clinging to its edge.

“Dieu Chat, all this time, all the times you said it to me, and I’d just brush you off, throw your feelings back in your face, not believing… not wanting to believe you,” she hugged her knees to her chest, pulling away from him a little “How do you not hate me?”

A gentle hand turned her face back to him, his voice kind, “I could never hate you,”  
“You should!” Ladybug pulled away from his touch, a scowl on her face as she turned away from him, denying herself his comfort, she didn’t deserve it. “What I’ve done to you, for so long,” she spat the words, before folding in on herself a little, and going quiet, “It- It’s not fair…”

She hadn’t heard him move, in an instant he was kneeling in front of her, cradling her face in his hands, “Ladybug, look at me,” he had the same look that had paused her in her thoughts before, something unshakably certain, something deep and sincere that she had no name for, “It-its ok, I understand, I understand that we need for our identities to stay secret, for the sake of our friends and families,” his eyes fluttered closed as though something pained him, “and… and its ok that you don’t feel the same way… the same way I feel about you, I-I can accept that…”. She had to shut him up, his words hurt too much.

He froze as her hand fell over his mouth, sternly shaking her head “That’s not it…”

If her fingers against his lips hadn’t startled him, her throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him close certainly did. “Of course I care about you Chat, how could I not?” gently she pushed him back, making a little space between them but not so much that his hands left her, “you’re my best friend, my partner, It trust you, of course I care about you, it’s just…” she faltered, looking away and nervously chewing on her lower lip.

Chats hands traced down her arms before taking her hands in his and squeezing gently, “Ladybug?”

“I’m… honestly I’m terrified. You always say that Chat Noir is freedom to be yourself, that you are more alive as Chat…” her frame sagged, “Its not the same for me. I’m not very ‘Ladybug’, when the mask comes off, if you ever met me, you’d be disappointed.”

There was no hesitation in Chats answer “No.”  
A clawed finger hooked under her chin, gently tilting her face to his, asking her to look at him. His expression was earnest.  
“I might not know who you are under that mask, but I do know that when you got that mask, it was empty. Everything that has ever been ‘Ladybug’ had to come from somewhere, everything that she is, it had to be in you first.”

Slowly Chats ubiquitous smile found its way back onto his lips as he spoke, his thumbs rubbing soothing circles into the back of Ladybug’s hands as she still struggled to meet his eye, “Our kwami can’t give us anything, or turn us into something we are not, all they can do, is pull certain aspects of ourselves forward, give us access to the best parts of ourselves when we need them.”  
So I might not know the girl under the mask, but I do know that she’s kind, and caring, and brave…”Ladybug huffed irritably and shook her head, causing Chat to chuckle “Yes! brave!, if she needs to be! and beautiful,” this earned him a glare that he met with equal intensity, “and ready to do whatever it takes to save her city, and to protect the people she cares about, even if that means she gets hurt, that’s the girl I fell in love with.” Chats expression became soft, a hand rising carefully to cup her cheek, “That’s the girl I will always love.”

“Ladybugs eyes fell closed, laying her hand over his as her stomach dropped, her voice breaking a little “I-I care about you too Chat, but I don’t know that I could ever return what you feel, I’m sorry.”

She felt his lips press gently to her forehead before he pulled her close, “I never asked you to.”

She let him hold her for a long moment, content to be in the safest arms in all of Paris, she had always trusted that Chat would protect her, that he would be by her side come all dangers. She had a new understanding of what that meant now. The only way that he would ever leave her was when his final breath left him, the only time he would fail her was if his heart failed him first. She understood that now, and silently, with his cheek pressed to her hair, and her head on his warm shoulder, she vowed to herself to be more careful with the fragile heart she had never realized she carried with her…

**Author's Note:**

> This is for you lovely commentors (Im looking at you lil_fangirl27, Marina and Sarah) that asked for a follow up... Here you go, have this! I wrote it pretty fast, so if Ive left some loose ends or if there are problems with the writing please let me know!
> 
> lil_fangirl - I played with your idea, but I just couldnt get it to gel with these two... sorry :(


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